This dataset contains 885 published patent families filed between 2015 and the 2026 data cut-off, using a search string that pairs offshore-operations terms with vessel motion, marine environment, hull structure, subsea flow and related concepts. That figure covers all matching families in scope, not just active or granted patents. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the true total for 2025-26 filings will be higher than currently shown once later publications catch up.

The assignee ranking covers 100 companies, with the leading filer holding 48 of the 885 records in scope and the top five combined holding 204 records (23.1% of the field). That leaves a substantial majority of filings spread across the remaining ranked companies and unranked entities, so no single company controls the field outright. Anyone assessing freedom-to-operate should check both the leader's portfolio and the long tail, since specific claim scope matters more than aggregate rank.

Complete-year data shows filings falling from 39 in 2021 to 20 in 2024, a 49% decline over that span, after peaking at 63 in 2022. The 2025 and 2026 figures shown in the trend are understated because publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, so those years should not yet be read as confirming a continued slowdown. The safest read is that activity cooled from its 2022 peak through 2024; what happens after that is still an open question pending later data.

Ships and marine vessel structures (IPC class B63B) account for 38.9% of the 885 records, and well drilling (E21B) for 28.7%, making these the two largest and clearly dominant classes. Behind them, hydraulic and waterway engineering, misc. materials, pipe fittings, wind turbines, control systems and foundation engineering each sit in the mid-single-digit share range. Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% of the corpus, which is expected rather than an error.

The classes with the smallest shares of the 885-record corpus — foundation/earth-drilling integration, wind-turbine-specific mechanisms, and control-system claims tied to vessel motion — carry noticeably less filing density than the dominant ship and well-drilling classes. That does not guarantee the space is technically open, but it does mean fewer claims currently occupy it. A practitioner should verify at the individual-claim level before filing, since aggregate class counts only show where the crowd is, not where a specific idea is blocked.

AU747520B2 claims a ship hull with vertical openings (moonpools) where the deck and hull bottom areas near the openings are displaced toward the ship's transverse neutral axis, with a stepped transition between displaced and undisplaced areas. It is a structural hull-geometry claim, not a claim over drilling, propulsion or control systems, so its blocking effect is limited to that specific moonpool-transition design. Designs using different transition geometries, or vessels without moonpools altogether, likely sit outside its claim scope, though a full freedom-to-operate check should confirm exact claim language.